Company Announcement - Colombian activists are shocked and alarmed at the devastation caused by gold mining they witnessed during their fact-finding visit to South Africa this week and will take what they have learnt from the experience home, says the Bench Marks Foundation. The group, consists of representatives of Tierra Digna (composed of indigenous small-scale farmers and communities in the most impoverished and conflict-affected areas in the country), ActAlliance Colombia Forum (composed of 13 churches and faith-based organisations) and Platforma Colombiana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrolla (composed of 100 organisations with interests in human rights issues and democracy).
 
The Bench Marks foundation took the group to various gold mining “hotspots” in Soweto, Klerksdorp and Witbank, to get an idea of what companies such as Anglo Gold Ashanti, BHB Billiton and others may be omitting from their reports, especially with regard to environmental damage.
 
“What we saw was land that was destroyed by tailings dams, serious health issues and terrible water pollution as a result of mining. We saw what will happen to our country after decades of mining and how it displaces people,” said Erik Norman from ActAlliance.
 
With gold mining set to commence in Colombia once peace comes about, environmental degradation is one of the main concerns for the people of that country along with the fact that peace will not address the root cause of the conflict which is access and control of land and its resources.
 
Once the peace agreement has been signed, land will be opened up for extraction: land that should be used for agriculture and eking out a living. This has led to robust opposition by the communities that will be affected, especially in La Colosa, where AngloGold Ashanti will open its third-largest mining project.
 
As far back as 2013, 99% of the people of Piedras, in the central province of Tolima, 96km west of La Colosa, voted against the South African-based gold mining company’s operations in the area. The results of the vote are binding under Colombia’s law on plebiscites, but the company has taken to legal action to continue with its mission to mine in the area. AngloGold Ashanti have agreed to meet with the organisations on Thursday, 18 February 2016 to discuss the group’s findings as well as any other issues that may be raised.
 
According to the representatives of Tierra Digna, legal action is one of many actions taken by mining companies to advance their agenda. Other actions include physical ways to remove people from the land or to intimidate them.
 
In addition, the link between the mining companies and the military as well as paramilitary forces is a serious cause for concern and is in contravention of the Bench Marks Principles for Global Corporate Responsibility and contravenes the UN Principles on mining and security within the human rights framework.
 
Platforma Colombiana de Derechos Humanos, Democracia y Desarrolla representatives said that many of these forces have already been linked to serious human rights abuses. It is public knowledge that companies have contracts with the minister of defence to provide security for the mines. Mines have blatantly stated that peace equals pacification. Civil society organisations have reported that 56 activists have been killed by paramilitary forces from the beginning of 2015.
 
More than five million people have been forcibly displaced in Colombia over the past 28 years through other mining operations and war, and now as peace looms, these organisations raise serious concerns that gold mining will continue to displace people. The group of activists will go back to Colombia and share the information gleaned from their visit to the people and media. The Bench Marks Foundation has committed to work with these organisations with regard to research, monitoring of social, environmental and political aspects, media campaigns, linking communities throughout the world, assisting in communicating with corporates, investigating economic and social alternatives, sharing experiences and carrying out joint legal actions where applicable and given the present information the organisation has, the Bench Marks Foundation will target AngloGold Ashanti to stop this project from going ahead.
 
The Bench Marks Foundation is an organisation that monitors multinational corporations to ensure that they meet minimum social, environmental and economic standards and promotes an ethical and critical voice on what constitutes corporate social responsibility.
 
For more information on the Bench Marks Foundation, go to www.bench-marks.org.za